Total Teaching Blog

  Challenge yourself to a problem solving task! In this series one of our teachers works through a problem solving task showing you how they would solve it and common misconceptions students have when solving it. Try solving the problem on your own first before watching the solutions in the video. ___________________________________________________________________________________ For this week's problem we are taking on a more challenging task - The Escape from NZ Maths Can you figure out when the prisoner can escape? Watch the full video of how we work through The Escape problem. Watch at your own pace and pause when you need to. Did you use the same strategies or do something different? The first important step is figuring out what is the important information in the question. What do we need to figure out and what information do we already have? At this point you can start to think of what strategies you might use to solve this problem. We started with finding common multiples o...

  What can we learn from 2 minute noodles? As Kiwis we have all had Maggi 2 minute noodles at some stage in our lives. As a food it is fairly mundane, not the most nutritional, but is simple, easy to prepare and gives us sustenance... but a fairly forgettable meal.  Unusual segue to an education concept but stay with me… I want to introduce ‘2 minute noodles’ as a way to communicate about your child’s education. Daily Routines For Total Teaching, 2 minute noodles is a simple idea that we want to share with you.  Just like the mundane food, we want to use the mundane routines in your life as an opportunity to communicate effectively with your child/ren.  Look for 3 opportunities each day to create a ‘2 minute noodle’. When you sit down for breakfast, make lunches, drive/walk to or from school, brush your teeth, get ready for bed etc. Use this as a time to have a discussion - no phones, no distractions, just one on one interactions. Then make this a routine, make it a ...

Challenge yourself to a problem solving task! In this series one of our teachers works through a problem solving task showing you how they would solve it and common misconceptions students have when solving it. Try solving the problem on your own first before watching the solutions in the video. ___________________________________________________________________________________ This week's problem is  Triangular Numbers from NZ Maths Watch the full video of how we work through the Triangular Numbers problem. Watch at your own pace and pause when you need to. Did you use the same strategies or do something different? When attempting this task, many students make this common mistake. Another strategy is drawing out each triangular number until you get to number 10 and number 20. Try this strategy to challenge yourself. We hope you enjoyed challenging yourself with this week's problem solving task and finding out what teachers would expect from this task.  For more free education...